In a campus memo, the University of Iowa’s interim associate vice president for diversity, equity and inclusion, Liz Tovar, said, “Let us state unequivocally that diversity, equity and inclusion remain as core values within our institution.”
Thursday, October 08, 2020
Colleges cancel diversity programs in response to Trump order
In a campus memo, the University of Iowa’s interim associate vice president for diversity, equity and inclusion, Liz Tovar, said, “Let us state unequivocally that diversity, equity and inclusion remain as core values within our institution.”
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This is exactly what I was worried about happening when I heard of this executive order. I am glad to hear that some universities are staying committed to the work they are doing on diversity and inclusion, including Carnegie Mellon. This move was such a regressive action it has really been hard for me to wrap my head around their justification for it. The United States is fundamentally racist in policy and practice, and any denial of that is entirely a continuation of this racist system. To me, diversity and inclusion movements are actually an extremely patriotic and American thing to take a part in, because it is about improving our society and bringing people of different backgrounds together in ways that had been difficult for far too long. We have so much work to do as a country in terms of reparations and justice for minorities in our community. Taking on this challenge is necessary and righteous, and everyone who has any compassion or empathy would agree with that.
In reference to Trump’s own words - America IS a “wicked and racist nation,” and our nation MUST be “radically transformed.” He is so focused on protecting the image of this great “America,” that he is silencing everything that is unfavorable. He wants every to be “equal” and seen as all Americans - yet everything about his policy has made a point of separating “insiders” and “outsiders.” It is discouraging to see educational systems being subject to this reform - many of them are doing it because of fear of losing funding. So many people go to higher education and receive more historical information than they might have had previously - conservatives like Trump are fearful of this because it exposes the truth of our nation. When Harper spoke about the difficulties of just getting to show the film Malcolm X - it made me nervous. This intention of shutting down diversity efforts is to help strengthen his own regime, but currently he is blackmailing the administration by saying they will pull funding if they do not adhere to these new standards.
Before I read this article I was unaware of this executive order. But upon deeper reading and research it seems like this executive order can have devastating implications. It seems as if it is forcing colleges who have just begun to address many of their wrongdoings and the white supremacy society we live in to move in the opposite direction. College students come from such a wide variety of backgrounds that I believe DEI education is especially essential. It is not a program of indoctrination into a specific political ideology, but important training about acceptance and support as well as education about the flawed history of the United States. I believe that colleges should fight this executive order as it threatens their ability to properly educate their student body and prepare them for the future. I think that it is wonderful that colleges have finally begun to educate not just students but faculty and staff on this issue as well, it is truly a step in the right direction. Nothing negative could come out of this it is solely positive. I believe that this executive order shows just how threatened Donald Trump feels by something so simple as telling the truth.
God, this week’s articles are so depressing. Like, surprise! Higher institutions of education are ALL systemically racist and some of them are fine staying that way!! America IS “irredeemably racist and sexist.” And they deny it because they KNOW that system benefits them. The ideology of hatred that Trump has fueled amongst individuals and organizations is so widespread and infectious. It is erasing the work of so many activists who have devoted their lives to educating and training people in ways to improve the country. It is erasing the history of the people this country was built upon the backs of. I know this executive order pertains specifically to government funded anything, but like I expected, other things are using it as an excuse to continue their bigotry without consequences. The enabling of racism is so disgusting, and it has been so practiced and calculated for centuries. Every person who has been indoctrinated with it needs to be given mandatory outlets to unlearn, educate themselves, and be better for the sake of our society.
Even just reading the title of this article is chilling. The fact that universities are even beginning to consider undoing this work is indefensible. I don’t care what the president says. There is no gray area in this matter. All institutions need to be committing and actively fighting for antiracism and equity in their structure. The damage than an executive order can do is incredible. This speaks to the fact that it is on each of us, as individuals, to hold the systems that we are a part of accountable for their actions and behaviors. Regardless of who is the president, we should be doing this work. Not only should we actively be fighting for equity, but we should be actively engaging in relationship repair and harm prevention. This executive order is a slap in the face to any efforts that have begun in relationship repair. The disrespect is overwhelming, but, unfortunately, not surprising.
I feel like I have too much to say and too extreme a reaction to express myself fluently. The main thing is that this executive order refers to the questioning and reflective nature of antiracism as indoctrination; criticism as unpatriotic, and diversity of opinion as political nonsense. Threatening to take away much-needed governmental funding is cruel and facist behaviour. Those who bow to the threat--such as the University of Iowa--likely feel themselves to be on a tightrope from which they would plummet without the funding. Nevertheless, their acquiescence to oppression is cowardly and dangerous; it is a betrayal of the people who they are obligated to serve, and it is a clear sign that their university is not safe for anyone who isn’t white. While it seems like regular individual citizens have no ability to impact anything outside of our own neighborhoods, colleges can have huge national and international impact. They can stand their ground, if they choose to.
This is so incredibly disappointing that this is where we're at as a country. I think that the steps taken in the wrong direction since the clowns infiltrated the white house is absolutely disgusting. Pete Buttigieg put it great, everyone in politics, in positions of power, they're all going to have a lot to answer for five to ten years from now. Universities that have taken the lead from the white house will suffer, they will have repercussions and this isn't going to look too good for them when there is a new president elected. There has been so much damage done already to the fabric of the nation that its going to take such large measures to ensure that this doesn't become the normal. As I said before, this isn't something that anyone should ignore, this is something people should take really seriously. I encourage everyone that happens to read this comment to vote and to vote out the clowns.
The lengths that Trump and other conservatives will go to spin any attempt to acknowledge the racist history of the U.S. as liberal propaganda pushing a narrative is astounding. The hypocrisy of them claiming that it’s the left are in denial of reality while saying that America is not racist. The lack of self-awareness to quote the declaration of independence and that “all men are created equal” while slavery was alive and well, and then claim that America is not racist is astounding. It is not a liberal agenda to expect all U.S. citizen to be aware of the real racist history of the U.S. anymore than it is to expect them to know pilgrims came in the Mayflower or that the north won the civil war. Any attempt by the government to dictate what can or cannot be taught in schools simply because they do not agree with the historical reality is akin to fascism and goes completely against the first amendment.
This just goes to show that leaders, no matter how terrible, set the precedence for how the rest of the country reacts. I am disappointed that universities are following in the steps of the Trump administration and cancelling any diversity training. It is disgusting also that there is a willful blindness to the power structures in place that put BIPOC at a disadvantage to white people. I also hate that they are citing Martin Luther King JR in the executive order. It feels like they are completely misrepresenting everything that he stood for. Yes, the constitution does state that everyone is equal and everyone should have equal opportunity. They are also twisting words around and making it seem that the hierarchies that are being called out do not exist to begin with. Like….it really is such a reach and maddening to have to read how people will do anything to avoid talking about their own privilege.
I would like to start this off by saying that the University of Iowa and John A. Logan College in Illinois are cowards. Making their campuses both diverse, equitable, and inclusive plus the teaching of such anti-racist frameworks are extremely important and ultimately necessary. Their choosing to stop running these programs based on the lack of federal funding is complete rubbish. It should be a priority for these programs to be continued especially in a time like now. These schools most definitely have the budget to upkeep their classes of representation and the statement made by the President was just a cop out and blatant excuse to reallocate funds. This makes me sick as someone who attends a school hundreds of miles away and who is white, so I cannot even fathom or begin to imagine how the black, indigenous, and students of color that attend those schools must feel.
Seeing this executive order being passed really supported the cynical side and thoughts I have about the United States. When this movement was first happening I was genuinely hopeful and thought that this country could be capable of change however the more we are moving past the part of the movement that was a "trend" the more I am believing that currently the United States is not capable of moving forward but is rather going backwards. Seeing colleges pull back on diversity and inclusion courses and seeing the president call these programs "racist" with so many people supporting him shows me how badly this country needs to be educated that we are all equal as human being however our country does not treat us that way. This country needs to rework the way they teach "American" history and stop worrying about being patriotic in our education, that will just lead us to feeding propaganda to our children almost like we are being brainwashed. With the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett I see so many civil liberties going away and it seems as though our education system does not even want to educate the future generations about why these liberties are important and our true American History.
Seeing this executive order being passed really supported the cynical side and thoughts I have about the United States. When this movement was first happening I was genuinely hopeful and thought that this country could be capable of change however the more we are moving past the part of the movement that was a "trend" the more I am believing that currently the United States is not capable of moving forward but is rather going backwards. Seeing colleges pull back on diversity and inclusion courses and seeing the president call these programs "racist" with so many people supporting him shows me how badly this country needs to be educated that we are all equal as human being however our country does not treat us that way. This country needs to rework the way they teach "American" history and stop worrying about being patriotic in our education, that will just lead us to feeding propaganda to our children almost like we are being brainwashed. With the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett I see so many civil liberties going away and it seems as though our education system does not even want to educate the future generations about why these liberties are important and our true American History.
When you put a bigot in office, you get bigotry in return. Donald Trump's rhetoric is not only obviously harmful, but is belligerently ignorant and regressive. To herald critical race theory as a "Marxist ideology" in order to call back upon American propaganda against Soviet Russia is just about as far of a stretch as one could make, though probably comparatively tame for Trump. Robert Barrios' statement about this executive order taking away Americans' tools to think for ourselves is the perfect way to describe it, I believe. While it would be great to live in a society in which all people recognize the effects of and try to prevent racism and injustice, that is frankly a utopian ideal. People must be able to think for themselves, and setting a groundwork for free thought in education is as important as anything else.
Wow, it’s almost as if the slave owners and racists that created country’s government didn’t create a very good foundation for it. With the uproar of the Black Lives Matter protests over the summer, the racism spike due to COVID, etc., the hope was for positive changes in this country, not to move backwards Race shouldn’t be a political issue- it’s based on human rights. We’ve known that trump isn’t a good person or president before he even stepped foot into office. I’m barely even surprised by this order at this point. But of course, since people learning about racial inequalities and diverse concepts would hold them accountable for being awful people, they can’t let that happen. Trump and his supporters will go through such lengths to promote American exceptionalism and act like all problems regarding race and gender stopped in the 1900s, and it’s ridiculous. It’s scary how it feels like we’re moving so quickly towards facism. Controlling what history and concepts can or can not be taught in schools based on what the president’s personal beliefs are is disgusting. And the colleges that decided to cancel their diversity and inclusion due to this order are shameful cowards. I hope Carnegie Mellon does not follow that path as well because this school very much needs that work.
This article deeply disturbed me. The Trump administration wants to take such a hollow and ill-informed view on American society and push it on to the greater population. How is it possible to argue that the country is not inherently racist when it was built on slave labor? It is so easy to see the repercussions of slavery and discrimination in modern life that it is horrifying anything else would be preached. It also deeply disturbs me to see the administration downplay the significance of learning history. On a basic level, it is understandable that history teaches us to learn from our mistakes, so disregarding it is foreboding toward making the same mistakes in the future. On a more specific note, it is disturbing to see the University of Iowa leap at the chance to abolish diversity and inclusion efforts at their institution because of only a vague governmental order that does not even directly address universities. It is honestly gross to see this university hide behind the guise of governmental funding. This reasoning does not hold up at all because of all the other universities in America dependent on federal funding that have not done anything regarding this order yet.
As soon as I saw the Trump order, I assumed this was going to happen at some point. Trump prohibiting diversity education programs in federally-funded organizations is a Big Deal and the only reason people aren’t talking about it more is because of all the other insane things he’s also done at the same time. It’s a signal to racists that he and his administration support their work to counteract the educational opportunities that minority groups have worked so hard for, and a threat to those minority groups and organizations that at least nominally support anti-racism that he can use this as a weapon to take away their federal funding. It’s honestly sickening. I’ve seen people responding to this online by saying ‘don’t worry, it’s only in the federal government, it’s not everywhere’ and it makes me want to scream ‘no, it’s federally-funded programs, like public schools’ and that’s a huge deal. America is an inherently racist country. Acknowledging that and working to improve it is not racism. Refusing to acknowledge that, and going one step further to actually prohibit acknowledging that, is a huge deal. (and yet another check on the fascism bingo card).
What a disappointing decision by the worst administration in American history. After a turbulent summer where American watched multiple black citizens, be murdered at the hands of police officers, the country realized that we fundamentally needed to reform all of our institutions to prevent institutionalized racism. One of the best places to start was with organizations of higher education that have been historically serving mostly white students. The decision by many universities to implement Diversity, Equity and Inclusion course for all of its students was a really good thing to do for racial justice in universities and just a general step in the right direction for the impact of the Black Lives Matter movement on higher education. It is just absolutely horrible that the Trump Administration has decided to make an executive order that doesn’t allow divisive concepts to be taught in federally funded programs. Can someone tell me how the hell is saying that all humans on this earth are more similar than alike a divisive concept. It is ridiculous that no one in the white house is calling out this executive order as inherently racist. Also it is so disrespectful that Trump actually quoted Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr. in defense of his order.
The fact that this was an executive order that was even able to be passed just truly amazes me because it makes absolutely no sense. And the fact that universities are beginning to back this and not push back against the order makes even less sense to me. How can students feel safe in their schools when schools actively denounce equality efforts? How can we repair a broken system if we accept that it’s broken and refuse to do anything about it? I appreciate that some schools are pushing back, and I have a lot of respect for what University of Michigan had said to push back against the rules and advocate for diversity, but this only goes so far. I hate that this is the point that we are at as a country. I hate that diversity and inclusion is seen as optional. I hate that educational institutions are allowed to even consider this as optional. This is just a blunt reminder that we all have so much more work to do to even touch on the diversity and inclusion efforts that we so often praise ourselves for.
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